Special Event with Peter Sheridan (In Person)
Date and Time
Location
"Peacebuilding: A Matter of Trust (and the Benefits of a Bowl of Soup)"
This event is free and open to the public. It will be livestreamed and available for viewing on the Weatherhead Center YouTube Channel.
Peter Sheridan will share his experiences of the thirty-five years of conflict in Northern Ireland, starting from his time in the police service as a Catholic when only five percent of the police force came from that community. He will discuss his tenure as the police commander in Derry, during which Martin McGuinness served as the IRA commander. Despite several attempts on his life, Sheridan and McGuinness forged an unlikely friendship.
Throughout his remarks, Sheridan will reflect on the importance of trust as the glue that holds relationships, societies, and economies together. Violent conflict leads to the erosion of trust, which is why rebuilding trust was a central element of his approach.
Speaker
Peter Sheridan, Chief Executive, Co-operation Ireland.
Chair
Melani Cammett, Director, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs; Chair, Weatherhead Research Cluster on Identity Politics. Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Department of Government, Harvard University.
Cosponsored by the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University.
Contact
Sarah Banse
sarahbanse@wcfia.harvard.edu
Bio
Peter Sheridan joined the peacebuilding charity Co-operation Ireland, an all-island community organization, in 2008 as chief executive. The organization was established in 1979, its aim to build mutual respect and understanding between the peoples of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland through practical cooperation.
The organization’s role has evolved over the past thirty years in line with the changing priorities for peacebuilding on the island. In recent years, its work has had an increased emphasis on peacebuilding at the community level, and it has played a central role in implementation of cross-border elements of the EU programs for communities coming out of conflict.
Co-operation Ireland's aim is a peaceful and stable island, free of sectarianism, where cultural and political differences are respected, and where people of all backgrounds can live and work together for a better future.
Peter Sheridan is a former assistant chief constable with the PSNI (formerly the Royal Ulster Constabulary). He retired from the police service in late 2008 having spent thirty-two years policing in Northern Ireland. Before retiring, he was responsible for the Crime Operations Department, which included serious and organized crime investigation including terrorist investigations.
Sheridan is an Honorary Professor of Practice at the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice at Queen's University Belfast. He is due to become commissioner of investigations on the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR) in December.
Poster image: Hands across the Divide sculpture by Maurice Harron, Derry, Northern Ireland, 1992. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, modified colors (CC BY-SA 3.0)
